Pharma manufacturing news in brief
pharmafile | March 22, 2013 | News story | Manufacturing and Production |Â Â APIC, Agila, Avitide, Catalent, Contego, Malaysian Bio-XCell, Nueland Labs, ShangPharma, Zhejiang biotechÂ
Agila to build a new facility in Malaysia, Avitide raises money for new bioprocessing technology, plus alliance and acquisition news involving Neuland, Contego and Catalent.
India’s Agila Biotech has signed a $34 million ‘build-and-lease’ agreement that will see a facility for end-to-end manufacturing of biologics built in the Bio-XCell biotechnology park in Nusajaya, Malaysia. Under the terms of the deal Malaysian Bio-XCell will provide $22 million for construction of the plant, which will make extensive use of disposable technologies, while Agila will cover the cost of equipment installation and validation. The facility will include a mammalian cell culture suite, a microbial fermentation suite, fill-and-finish capacity, laboratories and offices.
Purification specialist Avitide of the US has closed a financing round, involving four venture capital firms, to help it develop and commercialise new technologies for commercial-scale bioprocessing. The technology allows therapeutic proteins to be purified at scale, without having to undertake multiple chromatography steps, and without requiring an affinity resin based on recombinant proteins, according to Avitide co-founder Tillman Gerngross. In part the money will be used to establish operations for Avitide in Lebanon, New Hampshire.
Neuland Laboratories of India has boosted its presence in the Japanese market via a collaboration with Mitsubishi Healthcare’s APIC subsidiary. Under the terms of the deal APIC will invest in Neuland’s Hyderabad facilities to set up dedicated production capacity for active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and intermediates, that will be sold to the company’s customer base in Japan. Financial terms of the agreement have not been disclosed.
Pharma print and packaging specialist Contego Healthcare is being bought by FIL International in a cash deal valued at around £160 million ($243m). Contego is a European organisation specialising in cartons, leaflets, foils and labels, with 10 manufacturing facilities, around 900 staff and turnover in the region of £100 million a year. After completion of the acquisition it will operate as part of FIL’s coated and security products (C&SP) division.
Catalent Pharma Solutions has expanded its operations in China via two joint ventures, one for its softgel business and the other for its clinical supply unit. The first JV is with Zhejiang Jiang Yuan Tang Biotechnology, a manufacturer of nutritional softgel products, which will tap into Catalent’s expertise as it expands into over-the-counter and prescription medicines. The second agreement is with ShangPharma Corp, with the two partners setting up a JV called Catalent (Shanghai) Clinical Trial Supplies. The new company will operate a 31,000 sq. ft. facility supplying comparator sourcing, primary and secondary packaging and labelling, and storage and distribution services.
Phil Taylor
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